Sudburians are used to feeling the shudders from underground blasting and seeing the night sky lit up from slag, but mines of the future could be much more subtle and efficient.

“One of the things we’re looking at is mining with no tailings,” said Carl Weatherell, executive director of the Canada Mining Innovation Council, at the Beyond Digital Transformation conference on Wednesday.

As well, companies are exploring how to “get rid of drill and blast,” he said, which apart from being dangerous is “perhaps not the most effective way to break rock and is not creating value.”

An alternative, he said, is to utilize a mechanical cutting machine, powered by electricity, and to move material by rail conveyance instead of rubber-tired trucks.

“It’s electric and continuous, and you can put ore-sorting on it,” he noted.

To eliminate or at least reduce tailings, mines can also explore dry processing (rather than add water), he said, and look for ways to make comminution — the grinding of rocks into small pieces — more cost-effective.

“It consumes four per cent of the world’s energy, but it’s about five to 10 per cent efficient,” said Weatherell. “So for every hundred million you’re spending in energy in this process, you’re throwing out at least 90 per cent by design. So that’s a huge challenge. Can we find a new technology platform to replace that?”

Weatherell said it’s important for the mining sector to look at how technology has revolutionized other industries and to borrow, to some extent, from the playbooks of successful companies.

“True innovation is transformation,” he said. “Sears no longer exists because of Amazon, for example. What Amazon did is challenge the very paradigm of Sears and other companies, create a new platform, and basically put them out of business. What we need to do is adopt those business models and innovation models from other industries.”

Neil Milner, of KGHM, takes part in a panel discussion at Beyond Digital Transformation Mining Conference in Sudbury, Ont. on Wednesday February 6, 2019. John Lappa/Sudbury Star/Postmedia NetworkJohn Lappa /
John Lappa/Sudbury Star

Collaboration is also key, he said, among mining companies as well as suppliers and organizations. “Let’s harness innovation potential around the world to solve complicated business problems,” he said.

Weatherell was one of several industry leaders to speak at the two-day mining conference, which drew participants from across the continent.

“This is an opportunity for us to showcase the technological advancement that we have here in Sudbury and share that with the world,” said conference chair Glenn Thibeault. “We’ve got folks and speakers here from Nevada and all over the country, and they’re coming to Sudbury because they know this is the hub of mining innovation.”

Thibeault pointed to digital innovations at Vale — where a nerve centre has been set up locally to coordinate all of the company’s North Atlantic operations — and Goldcorp’s use of drones for mine mapping as examples of being on the leading edge.

Technology doesn’t have to displace people, however, stressed Thibeault.

“We are going through a transformation that is going to make mining safer, more productive, and still create the good-paying jobs that we all know come from the sector,” he said. “I’ve heard several times today that this isn’t about laying off workers. This is about taking the same workforce and training them to do the job.”

Weatherell said Agnico Eagle, a Toronto-based miner, is already using a remote-controlled rail-veyor system supplied by a Sudbury company for an operation in northern Quebec.

Machines also exist now that can “do mechanical cutting with small blades or disks, and we’re looking at doing a demonstration in Ontario this year,” he said.

A rail conveyance eliminates the need for a fleet of trucks, he noted, while a mechanical cutter replaces blasting and drilling. In each case there would be less of an environmental impact and less risk of human injury.

John Oshaughnessy, of Vale, takes part in a panel discussion at Beyond Digital Transformation Mining Conference in Sudbury, Ont. on Wednesday February 6, 2019. John Lappa/Sudbury Star/Postmedia NetworkJohn Lappa /
John Lappa/Sudbury Star

“You’re not using explosives, and there’s no one at the face drilling holes,” he said. “If you are doing mechanical cutting and ore sorting, you are also sending less material to the surface, therefore your tailings are automatically much smaller. You’re using less energy, so less GHG (greenhouse gas) emissions. Everything is reduced — water consumption, environmental footprint and energy.”

While safety and the environment are always important considerations, the mining sector must also make these changes simply in order to survive economically, according to Weatherell.

“With nickel prices going the way they are, and as mines go deeper, it’s becoming more difficult,” he said. “It’s harder to raise capital, it’s harder to make margins, and as social conscience comes into play it takes longer to get permitting done.”

He noted two CEOs from different mining companies made a similar point earlier in the conference.

“They said if we don’t change the business of mining, we won’t have a mining business,” he said.